FashionistA nail lacquer in Mystical Dragon

I have been blogging a lot about makeup recently, and therefore haven't really written much about anything nail related. That's not to say that I haven't been buying nail polish, as my bank statement would quite clearly show you that I have!

My most recent purchase is FashionistA's Mystical Dragon. I'd been putting off buying this for a while now. Whenever I placed an order on MUA's website (FashionistA is owned by the same company as MUA), I'd put Mystical Dragon in my cart everytime, and would eventually remove it because some other product would feel more necessary or useful (normally lipstick!)

But not this time! Aha! I finally own Mystical Dragon, and I'm mentally kicking myself for not ordering it sooner. I posted pictures of my manicure with this polish, and even my mum (who rarely ventures from taupe polish) remarked on how pretty it was. I asked if she wanted to borrow it. She said no. She probably had a new Chanel greige polish. Whatevs.

FashionistA Mystical Dragon

(Direct Sunlight)

Direct Sunlight

Direct Sunlight

Mystical Dragon is a definite colour shifter! It couldn't decide whether it wanted to be a true teal or an a slightly emerald leaning teal. My pictures above don't quite show that emerald tinge, as my camera was freaking out, just even focusing on Mystical Dragon. Mystical Dragon is a glass fleck polish, and in the right light, has a golden fleck to it, which I managed to capture by blurring the shot a little. 

Direct Sunlight, purposely blurred

I used two coats in the pictures above, and you can still see some visible nail line (VNL). I''m thinking that Mystical Dragon ma work well on top of a suitable turquoise or teal cream polish, thus making it more opaque. However, this would then probably diminish the colour shift of the flecks. It's like Sally Hansen Nail Prisms all over again. *sighs*

It's only when I was later in my kitchen that I managed to capture this polish in a picture that has the truest-to-life representation. 

Artificial Light

Gorgeous! I'm yet to tell you the best thing about this polish- it's price. £1.50. Less than a bus ticket in Birmingham, and you can get yours here. The polish, that is.

Coming up tomorrow, I have some MAC Holiday goodness to share with you! 

MUA and Fashionista mini haul!

Today's weather has been absolutely pants, and as such, I haven't been able to take any decent swatch photos of my last RiRi Hearts MAC Fall lippie! However, what I do have to show you is a mini that arrived from MUA the other week!

You may already know that MUA is owned by the same parent company as Fashionista,which when the brand was pulled out of Superdrug stores, it became available to buy from the main MUA website, at drastically reduced price points. Yes!

I was always keen to have a Fashionista palette, so a few of their eyeshadows got added to my cart! The look I created the other week was using Fashionista Double Take Baked Eyeshadow in Trendsetter, Fashionista Secret Gel Eyeliner in Cute Route and MUA Liquid Eyeliner in shade 3 (a bargain, for just £1!)

Trendsetter

Cute Route, Shade 3, Trendsetter.

How gorgeous is Trendsetter in the pan?! I was impressed not only by the quality of this eyeshadow, but also the size of the pan- its huge! I shocked that such a good product and such a generous amount of product cost me the grand total of £1.65. Yep, this beautiful eyeshadow cost me less than a single bus ticket in Birmingham! And the Secret Gel Eyeliner? £1.50. Fashionista is truly for a Recessionista! 

I used the Secret Gel eyeliner as a lid colour and a base for the baked powder eyeshadow to adhere to. I then simply buffed the powder eyeshadow up and out towards the brow bone. Trendsetter blended out really easily with a MAC 224 brush and had a good amount of pigment to it. Trendsetter is also quite glittery, due to its baked nature, and you can probably see it best in the close up shot of my eye. I then did a simple gold line using the MUA Eyeliner in Shade 3. I have a few of these £1 eyeliners by MUA, and I love them! (I just wish they did more colours in this formula- hint hint, MUA!)

All three products lasted well throughout the day, staying vibrant for around six hours, fading after the seventh hour, and needing a refresh after eight hours. However, this is probably due to the eyeshadow being a baked product, which for me, don't tend to last as long as a standard powder eyeshadow. 

Daylight.

Artificial light with flash.

Have you tried any of the Fashionista products? If so, what are your favourties? Share in the comments section! 

MAC Pink Pepper and Summer Honey Pressed Pigments

Hey guys!

After a long hiatus, I'm finally back to my beauty writing and it feels great to be able to do it again! I've recently swapped job roles within the pub that I work, which means I can now wear make and nail polish again. Happy days!

Today I'm showing you all a look I created with MAC's 2013 pressed pigments collection. Some of this collection was limited edition, however a handful were added to the existing range that was introduced in the summer of last year. I have used Pink Pepper and Summer Honey in my look today, which are both LE shades, however at the time of me writing this, both of these shades were available on Selfridges' website. So run, don't walk, and order these if you like them!!

Pink Pepper

Summer Honey

These two shades make such a pretty combination together! I used an Estee Lauder eyeshadow pencil as an adhesive base so that the pigments had something to adhere to. I then used Pink Pepper all over the lid, and blended any harsh lines out with Summer Honey. I then used a Stila waterproof liquid liner to line underneath my eyes and create a flick. On my inner rim is Illamasqua colouring pencil in Elate. The lashes are Make Up Academy Flair lash. 

Have you tried any of the MAC Pressed Pigments yet? Please feel free to share any tips or looks in the comments below!

MAC Party Parrot & Pink Pigeon (Strength Collection)

MAC's latest collection titled 'Strength' featured five pretty awesome Matte lipsticks. There were however, only two that were on my shopping list: Party Parrot and Pink Pigeon.

Crazy bird names for bright lipsticks. Me gusta mucho. 

Top: Party Parrot

Bottom: Pink Pigeon

MAC describes Party Parrot as a bright red pink. It is bright, but for me I would say it is more of a coral color in the tube.

I used an MUA Cosmetics bright orange eyeliner as a lip liner for this, and it worked out pretty good! If you want a matching MAC lip liner, Lasting Sensation would be the best one. Here's how Party Parrot looked on my lips:- 

Pink Pigeon is described by MAC as a bright cleanest pink. I would say that description is bang on the money. 

I used a Barry M lip liner for Pink Pigeon, and it was just a little bit too dark, as you can see my liner in the picture below. MAC recommend Embrace Me as a matching lip liner for Pink Pigeon.

I love both of these lipsticks, and I'm gutted that they're both limited editions. The only small consolation is that Candy Yum Yum is now a permanent MAC collection lipstick, which is very similar to Pink Pigeon. Phew. 

Will you be checking out MAC Strength collection? Have you ever rocked a bright lipstick before?

Food Inspired Nails Part 1- Strawberry Cheesecake Cupcakes

Hey guys, sorry for my absence, I have recently been visiting my family up in the North West, in a small town named Congleton. You may have heard of it, but you probably won't have. (It's that small)
Anyhoo, Mr Claw requested some Strawberry Cheesecake Cupcakes last week to cheer him up (Masters dissertation- say no more), and here's how they turned out:

Yum! I took the recipie from the Hummingbird Bakery Cupcakes and Muffins book, and I think it they turned out pretty nice! They tasted lush, despite the fact that Strawberry is probably my least favourite berry. Mr Claw loved them too, and said that next time, I was to bake cupcakes that I wanted! (Oh! How generous!)

It was after I made these cupcakes that I realised I could do a really simple, but effective nail art design based on the strawberry. I had recently bought some new nail art pens and hadn't taken them for a test drive yet, and every nail polish lover has a basic red creme so I created these designs:-

Not bad, eh? As I said, these are really simple designs, but I think they are effective and eye catching. In hindsight, I'm not so sure of the middle finger pink strawberry, as I think I should have stuck to the primary colours. I love the thumb though! Tasty!

Here is a list of all the lacquers I used to create this look: Barry M Nail Paint in Matte White, MUA Cosmetics Nail  Varnish in U & I, Rimmel Lycra Pro in Show Off, Nails Inc Nail Varnish in Milan, Red, Green and Yellow Nail Art Pens (I got mine from Argos!)

What do you guys think? Let me know! 

MUA and Love Hearts Collaboration Swatches and Review

I have finally got round to swatching all six of the MUA Love Hearts Nail Varnishes! Feast your eyes on these little lovelies:-

The six varnishes.

I Want U (Orange Shade)

U & I (Yellow Shade)

I <3 U

U & I. This shade surprised me, as it looks very soft and pastel in the bottle. In reality it is more of a bright sherbet shade. Still nice though, as it's not often you see a good yellow colour in spring collections. This makes me think of Easter- fluffy chicks and the like :)

I Want U. Again, this surprised me as it looks softer in the bottle. This is a nice bright orange creme lacquer, without being borderline neon. Cheerful.

I <3 U. A dusty pink creme. I would say that this has a touch of lilac in, as it does not seem a true pink. A beautiful colour, that soothed my eyes after the two bright shades above!

Love U 24/7 (Purple Shade)

U Rok (Blue Shade)

U R Fab (Sorry for the dry cuticle situation- it's being resolved this evening!)

U Rok. A deep cornflower blue creme.

Love U 24/7. This looks really lilac in the photo, but in reality, its much more of a deeper purple. I think the picture above is a bit more true to life.

U R Fab. A plummy magenta colour. This and I <3 U are the two more reserved colours of the collection.

The application of these was a bit of a mixed bag. U Rok and Love U 24/7 bubbled upon application, you can see this on my pinky finger in the pictures. I had to redo a few nails in these colours. You need to take your time with these two, do thin coats and let them dry well in between coats. Doing a thin coat, however was impossible with the brush in these varnishes (all six of them.) Seriously, the brush is not the best. The bristles splayed everyhere, and were scratchy and left lines in the varnish on the nail. My brush on U & I even broke :( Sad times.

That said, once on, these colours are beautiful. I kinda see the collection as three sets of two, the orange and yellow are the brights, the dusty pink and the magenta are the more refined colours, and the purple and blue are the sherbet colours. That said, as a collection, they all work well together.

These lasted well too, which surprised me given their price point of £2. They only started to chip after a couple of days, which to me, is pretty good going. I think if I reapplied my top coat every day, I would have got a bit more wear out of them.

After trying these, I will definately be trying more MUA nail varnishes- for only £1, what's the worst that can happen?

Did you all have a fun Valentine's Day?

A totally 'sweet' collaboration: MUA's Love Hearts Collection

When MUA announced on Twitter their collaboration with Love Hearts, I knew I wanted a piece of that action. The collection comprises of five lip balms and six nail varnishes. Now, I'm a big fan of pastels anyway, but when I saw these, I instantly made space in my already overflowing lacquer collection for them. Behold...

Top row: I Want U, U Rok, U & I

Bottom row: I<3 U, Love U 24/7, U R Fab

Cute or what?

I can't wait to swatch these, and make some gorgeous nail art with them! So far though, I am really pleased with these, the packaging is just delcious (ooo, cheesy Claw!) Despite me now usually being a lipgloss type of girl, the lip balms are calling me to buy them! Hmm, we'll see. I would probably buy them and keep them with the other make up that I own but never use, because it is simply to beautiful. (Alice in Wonderland Urban Decay Book of Shadows, anyone?)

Will post swatches mega soon!